Blanket High heavily damaged as at least one tornado touches down

Eric J. Shelton/Reporter-News
Lance Soward, 18, cleans water from the gymnasium floor of Blanket High School after the roof of the gym was hit by a tornado Monday.

Eric J. Shelton/Reporter-News
A Blanket resident looks at the weather from Blanket High School’s cafeteria on Monday. The high school was hit by a tornado earlier in the day.

Eric J. Shelton/Reporter-News
Blanket resident Jerry Hodge helps remove water from Blanket High School’s industrial arts class room after the school was hit by a tornado Monday.

Meteorologists will be in Brown County today, particularly in Blanket northeast of Brownwood, to survey damage caused by what officials said appeared to be multiple tornado touchdowns late Monday afternoon.

The Brown County Sheriff’s Office said Blanket High School was heavily damaged with almost the entire gym roof blown off. Debris also was scattered on the grounds.

Damage also was reported in Blanket Cemetery, the Rodeo Arena, and the Blanket ISD bus barn. There were no injuries, and authorities said some of nearby homes sustained minor damages. It also removed the high school's agriculture building’s south side door and destroyed 11 brand new air conditioning units in the gym valued at $100,000 that were only installed last week.

Around town, telephone poles and power lines were knocked down and tree limbs snapped.

About 50 people — including 40 students — were assembled for Blanket Independent School District’s athletic and academic awards ceremony when the tornado hit.

“(We) thought it would move north of us and we’d keep them in there,” Blanket Superintendent Kevy Allred said. “Then, all of a sudden, in 20 seconds we lost our door in our gym and (had) damage in bus barn. You could tell it was a tornado by the way the windows and building was buckling,” Allred added. “We just tried to keep (the students) calm.”

Allred said the last day of school was going to be Friday, so students now have the remainder of the week off.

A dispatcher for the sheriff’s office said state and local agencies were at the scene cleaning up Monday night, adding Atmos Energy crews were in Blanket trying to contain a gas leak.

Seth Nagle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service at San Angelo, cautioned that reports that reached their office were all preliminary.

“There are numerous reports of hail anywhere from quarter-size to golf ball size,” Nagle said. “The storm, pretty much everything was in Brown County and extended anywhere to near Lake Brownwood, east to Blanket and southeast toward Zephyr.”

The question meteorologists will try to answer today is whether there was only one touchdown.

There wasn’t a lot of weather activity in Abilene on Monday besides the temperature hitting 100 for the second time this year. The highest wind gust was recorded at 33 mph.